


Followers of Angels

by Vyker



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Body Horror, Cannibalism Puns, Demons, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Mild Gore, Prostitution, Sexual Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:22:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21702079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vyker/pseuds/Vyker
Summary: The hotel’s first set of clients are not what the group was expecting, but could they be a sign that Charlie might really be able to pull this off?Meanwhile, some back-alley dealings leads Angel Dust to make a dangerous and surprising discovery, but how might it be used to assist in the path of redemption?
Comments: 19
Kudos: 47





	1. The Worst Type of Clients

“Look, Charlie, I know you have big dreams about the hotel, but I think we need to start off small,” Vaggie proposed carefully, trying to edge around belittling Charlie’s ideas. “Get in just a few demons at first, ones that might be more open to the whole redemption thing, and then work our way up from there. We don’t have to achieve everything at once.”

This placation was in response to Charlie getting a little too excited and ahead of herself, as usual. They were sitting on the couch in the hotel foyer area, Alastor on an arm chair pulled up next to them in a mini meeting semi-circle. Angel Dust was over by the bar, trying to chat up Husk again.

“On the contrary my dear,” Alastor’s radio crackle cut in, “what this venture really needs is a massive, wildly successful marketing campaign! Run by yours truly of course.” He paused for a moment on a smug grin, ignoring Vaggie’s piercing glare, before continuing. “Yes indeedy, we need to get the message out with our own spin, all across the airwaves. Radio advertisement is, after all, the key to successful business enterprise.” He finished with a low chuckle, adjusting his monocle slightly.

“Oh, oh, and what about on TV too?” Charlie chimed in gleefully, clearly getting swept up on Alastor’s pitch.

“The picture show? Oh, well, I suppose you could if you really wanted to. But I’m telling you, radio will be the key. After all, I have been thinking that those of older generations will probably be more successful with this redemption idea; back in my time people were actually afraid of god, if they believed in him that is. They usually tried to stay away from sinning, though, accidents do happen of course.” Alastor explained blithely.

“Um, excuse me?” Vaggie hissed incredulously. “Look, I’m not going to in any way argue for your idea about advertisement, but what you just said there sounded like complete bullshit to me. The older generations are more stuck in their ways, if anything they would be harder to redeem as they don’t want to change! My generation is much more open minded.”

“Nonsense my dear,” Alastor said with a condescending wave of his hand. “The younger generations are sinning more than ever before, in fact they seem to embrace sin and don’t even want to change their ways. After all, many of them have even started to idolize serial killers, like me, isn’t that ridiculous? No, we don’t need any more of that kind of rabble around here, no offence of course. We need the older audience, the radio audience. My audience!” he exclaimed, his voice rising in passion.

Angel Dust watched the argument unfold whilst perched atop a barstool, legs crossed, cocktail cradled lazily between his fingers. He saw Charlie try to step in and stop the two, but the bickering had really set off now. Vaggie had jumped to her feet, her voice rising in anger. Meanwhile Alastor just sat with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face, speaking with calm humour in retort to whatever Vaggie was screeching. He didn’t seem the slight bit bothered about anything she said, instead appeared to be getting amusement from winding her up further. Angel rolled his eyes.

Suddenly there was a knock on the front doors. Angel realized he was the only one to whip his head towards it in surprise when he looked back and saw the other three were still completely absorbed in their quarrel. He turned back towards Husk.

“Hey, ain’t you gonna get that?” Angel asked.

“I ain’t the fucking doorman,” Husk snapped, taking another huge swig from his cheap liquor bottle so he could pretend to ignore Angel some more.

Angel raised an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure that’s your job… but fine, I’ll go get it,” he sighed in resignation, unwinding his limbs and hopping down off the barstool to swan over to the large double doors, cocktail still in hand.

Using one of his lower arms he turned the knob and pushed the doors open, peering outside at the visitors. There was a small chorus of horrified gasps. Angel’s eyebrows shot up, and he quickly stepped back from the door, turning around to face where the others were.

“Hey Charlie, we got company!” he yelled across the room so he could be heard over all the Spanish cussing. Vaggie was currently being held back by Charlie as she tried to reach Alastor to strangle him, while the radio demon maintained his static grin, unperturbed. When the three heard Angel’s call they all turned to face the door and Vaggie stopped struggling against Charlie’s grasp.

“Oh!” exclaimed Charlie in a mix of alarm and delight. She let go of Vaggie and quickly skipped over to the door, taking a step outside to meet the visitors. Vaggie shot Alastor a death glare before following the princess, Alastor himself taking his time to rise and make his way after the other two.

Charlie certainly wasn’t expecting a small crowd of demons to be standing outside her door, so the face she greeted them with wasn’t the charming grin that she wanted to show potential new clients, but a puzzled look instead. In front of her stood two short pudgy demons, behind them a few well-built ones around her height, a tall elegant one and one tall and lanky looking one.

“Oh, hello everybody!” Charlie said, unable to hide the surprise in her tone. “Uh, I mean, Welcome to the Happy Hotel everyone! It’s lovely to meet you!” she had gotten over her first reaction now and was putting true gusto into her greeting.

The group all looked at her sceptically. “Um, the sign says Hazbin Hotel,” one of the short demons piped up, pointing to the glowing sign on top of the building.

Charlie’s smile froze on her face. “Oh… never mind that, sign’s broken,” she said with a dismissive wave. “Now what can I do for you fine people?”

One of the short pudgy demons stepped forward and drew herself up to her full, yet still small, height. “We are good Christian people, who were wrongly sent here to hell, and wish to correct this and get into heaven where we belong,” she demanded shrilly. This demon bore the likeness of a toad, with slimy green skin and squashed facial features.

Charlie stared at her in astonishment, maintaining a fixed forced smile. “Is that so?” the princess finally managed to push out, her eyes almost glazing over as she tried to comprehend what this meant.

“Yes, it is. So, we want to speak to the manager of this establishment,” the demon said in an impatient tone, scowling up at Charlie.

Charlie tried to pull herself back together after being so thrown by the demon’s first statement. “Well, you’re in luck then, because I am the manager. Yaaay…” Charlie explained with two thumbs up, her enthusiasm dampened slightly.

“Nonsense, you couldn’t be running this place, business management is a man’s job. I want to speak to the owner of the place,” the squat demon clarified smugly.

Charlie’s face fell slightly as more wind was snatched from her sails. She implored: “but I am the manager, it’s my hotel…”

“By the lord, child, don’t test me,” the demon hissed, and looked around until her eyes landed on Alastor who was leaning up against the doorway behind Charlie, Vaggie and Angel. “Now there’s a man who looks like he’s in charge of something!” the small demon exclaimed, hiking up her skirts slightly to step on over to the radio demon. When Alastor realised she was approaching him his face went from a relaxed and mirthful grin to one of surprise and maybe a hint of panic. Charlie had raised her hand to say something, but the toad demon had moved away before she could get it out, so she let the hand fall. Behind her Vaggie and Angel were just staring dumbfoundedly, mouths slightly ajar.

The small toad demon had started an outpour of grievances onto Alastor, and though he looked to Charlie pleadingly to save him, she simply turned back to the rest of the group of visitors, her shoulders slightly sagging, leaving the radio demon to fend for himself against the client, who wouldn’t let him get a word in edgeways.

“Please excuse Karen, she gets a bit intense at times,” the tall lanky demon visitor said, removing a round black hat from his head. He seemed to resemble a secretary bird, mostly grey with a yellow face, long feathers sprouting from his head instead of hair, and extremely long and skinny legs. He was wearing what appeared to be clerical attire.

“So, you’re all here to be redeemed?’ Charlie asked cautiously, glancing over the small crowd of demons.

“Yes, that’s right. My name is Father Matthew, I am the shepherd of this small flock of gods lost children,” the bird demon introduced himself with seemingly all sincerity, which made Vaggie quietly start losing her mind behind Charlie. This guy couldn’t be serious. But Charlie was ignorant to the irony, not knowing that much about religion, surprisingly. “We have been seeking salvation for a long time, and that is how we have ended up on your doorstep, looking for another chance to cross through the pearly gates.” Vaggie was practically cringing at this point.

Matthew went on to introduce the members of his ‘flock’. The other squat female demon was Brenda, who looked like a mouse, and had been nodding along and agreeing with everything anyone in her group said, even when Karen had been rude to Charlie. The elegant lady demon was Elizabeth, who resembled an antelope, with elongated facial features and very long thin horns sticking up from her head, who seemed to have her nose turned up at pretty much everything. There were also two other male demons: Dominic was a well-built fellow who looked like an ox, and Clarence was a heavy-set man who had taken the form of a tapir. The priest really had quite the diverse looking bunch under his wing, no pun intended.

Charlie glanced behind and saw that Alastor had demon sigils floating in the air around him and looked like he was about to murder the oblivious Karen, and knowing that he possibly would do literally just that, Charlie clapped her hands together and said “Well it’s wonderful to have you all here. Come on in and make yourselves at home, everyone is welcome at the Happy Hotel!” she beamed with cheer and beckoned for the group to come through the doors, Vaggie and Angel following suit. On her way past she stopped next to Karen, hovering a gentle hand behind her back and couching slightly to speak with her.

“We will be sure to set you up with our finest room for you inconveniences today madam, please come right this way,” this seemed to placate the little demon, who stopped berating Alastor and nodded contently, letting Charlie gently guide her through the doors. Alastor’s eye twitched as the runes and static air dissipated, and he scowled slightly while still smiling, before following the others inside.

“If you head right over to Husk there at our front desk, he will be able to set you all up with some wonderful rooms. You can get settled in, and then we can talk more at dinner,” Charlie suggested in a jovial tone with a cheery grin. The small gaggle of demons made their way over to Husk, whose expression had fallen at the sight of them and was currently face-palming intensely. Charlie’s fake grin dropped once the group moved away, and she wiped her brow.

“Well would you look at that, some smucks actually believe they can get into heaven and want to stay here, who would’ve thunk,” Angel Dust stated with an expression of acceptance, sipping from his cocktail.

“I didn’t even think about the Christian demons, I guess because they are always in hiding,” Vaggie said thoughtfully. She noticed that though Charlie had been a bit awkward around the guests, she was now bouncing up and down on the spot with excitement, clearly keen to have some patrons that would actually take her redemption program seriously. Meanwhile Alastor looked quite passive, which probably meant he was quite pissed off.

“I’ve never even heard of Christian demons,” Charlie piped in. “Can you tell me what they’re all about?”

“It’s hilarious, it really is,” said Angel, chuckling to himself. “They are demons who believed in god when they were alive, and thought they were following his teachings and being good little Christians. They assumed they would go to heaven after they died just because they attended church every Sunday and confessed their sins to a priest. But actually, they were just shitty people and ended up down here like the rest of us,” Angel tried hard to hide his mirth.

Vaggie nodded. “There’s been plenty of them come down here over the years. They go around saying they don’t belong here, refuse to accept the reasons why they ended up here, and usually end up segregating themselves from the rest of society and going into hiding, because of course, they hate demons,” she explained further.

Angel laughed. “Often when the cleansing happens, many groups of them will willingly sacrifice themselves to the angels, think they will take them to heaven. Or even just, try to go up to the exterminators and explain why they don’t belong here, which just ends up with them being impaled,” he chortled.

“Oh dear. So, what have they done to be sent here?” Charlie asked, seeking further illumination on her new patrons, one of which was currently getting into an argument with another over room numbers, Husk staring blankly and the dark circles under his eyes seeming to grow by the minute.

“The usual conservative Christian stuff; racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, domestic abuse, being rude as hell and treating most people like shit,” Vaggie explained with distain. “Oh, and you know, your regular old paedophile priests,” she looked out of the corner of her eye at Father Matthew as she said this.

“Oh, well… at least they have the motivation,” Charlie said, trying to look on the bright side. “They want to be redeemed, and I think they’ll probably do their best. Maybe this will be a good bunch to try out our program on first, since they are so willing.”

The sound of a radio crackled through the air. “You’re heart is in the right place my dear, but I think even if you did manage to redeem one of these religious sinners, heaven would probably be worse off for it,” Alastor finally said with a shake of his head, seeming to have regained his composure from the verbal assault that was Karen the conservative Christian.

Charlie was about to retort to this, but she heard someone calling out to her from the desk. She turned around and saw Karen with the rest of her group walking over to them. Charlie swallowed apprehensively.

“Well, we finally got sorted, but you really need to do something about your front of house staff my dear,” Karen said in a huff, crossing her arms over her chest. “Terrible service. And also, I don’t much like the idea of sharing this hotel with this kind of depravity,” she flicked her head towards Angel Dust as she said this, seeming to refer to his person as a whole.

“Hey, you really ain’t much of a saint yourself toots,” Angel growled, before stalking away. “I’m heading out anyway, see you chumps later,” he announced flippantly, slipping out the front door. Karen looked pretty pleased with herself.

“Now now Karen, you must have heard what Charlie said. Everybody is welcome at the hotel, both us and people like him. God teaches us acceptance, and to love thy neighbour, remember?” Father Matthew chastised the toad demon. Karen scowled at him, but what he said seemed to have shut her up. “She is trying, really she is”, he apologised for her, “now why don’t you ladies and gents take your bags and find your rooms and get settled. What time will dinner service be Charlie?”

“Oh, uh, dinner will be at 7 pm… sharp, of course,” Charlie tried to say with some authority, wanting to appear more managerial to Karen.

The priest nodded at her, then nodded at his followers. Looking a bit unsure, they shuffled away, nervously checking their key numbers as they piled into the elevator and headed upwards.

“Please try to forgive their brashness, they just need guidance,” Father Matthew apologised for them once again. “They find it difficult to deal with other demons.”

He nodded towards them respectfully. “I’ll speak more to you at dinner then,” he added, before excusing himself and making his own way over to the elevator. He only had one small handbag.


	2. Damaged Divine

A couple of hours later the front foyer doors slammed open, causing Charlie to jump and Alastor to raise an eyebrow. They had been discussing their new guests when the door had flown open and Angel Dust legged it into the hotel. A few steps in he suddenly froze, breathing heavily and eyes looking slightly wild.

“Angel? What’s going on?” Charlie asked quickly with concern, stepping over to him and looking him over to try and discern his cause of distress. He didn’t look injured at all, just… nervous? Is Angel ever nervous?

“Ch-Charlie, doll, I just, er, found something that I really think you should look at,” Angel unfroze as he started to explain, getting quite animated with gestures from all four of his hands. He was still quite breathless and seemed slightly panicked and fidgety.

“What do you mean you found something?” Charlie asked incredulously, narrowing her eyes.

“My dear fellow, I hope you haven’t been bringing the hotel into disrepute again,” chimed in Alastor, “it’s only been one day since the last time, hahahaha.” The radio demons tone seemed to suggest this was a bit of humor, though his static gaze seemed slightly threatening. After all, he and Charlie had also been discussing the issue of ‘how to make sure Angel doesn’t stuff it all up again’.

“Oh yeah, lets just jump straight to conclusions here and paint me as the bad guy all over again,” Angel said with a huff, his disposition quickly switching from panicked to miffed. “Now look, I may have just been offering a guy a blowjob in an alley, but I assure you I was being extremely covert about the whole thing- hence the alley-” he started to explain, seeming to go off track a bit.

Charlie and Alastor both gave him different annoyed looks, one being a lot scarier than the other. Angel stopped and reconsidered, deciding to change tact. “Look, forget about the blowjob, it’s not important. You REALLY have to see this!” Angel insisted frantically, reaching out both his left hands to grab Charlie by the arm and start pulling her towards the door.

“Okay okay Angel, if it’s so important I’ll go, you don’t have to grab me,” Charlie pried the spider demon’s hands off her arm and started following him to the door. She glanced back and Alastor and gave a bewildered shrug before trailing behind Angel out of the hotel.

\--

They spent quite a while winding through the streets of the city. “We could have brought the car,” Charlie moaned as she dragged her feet slightly, wondering if this was going to be worth all the hassle. So far Angel Dust hadn’t let on anything more about what he was taking her to see, insisting it would be easier to just show her than explain.

“No, we don’t need it, it’s fine we’re almost there,” Angel retorted, waving her suggestion off. His demeanour had changed again, and he was looking a little apprehensive. What could have spooked Angel this badly? He usually wasn’t worried about anything.

They finally entered an alley, assumedly the one from Angel’s half-finished blowjob story, though Charlie didn’t want to think too much about that. It was like most alleyways around Pentagram City: filthy, full of trash and graffiti, kind of damp in places, smelled like three kinds of death. Angel led her all the way down the passageway and then around a corner.

“Here!” Angel exclaimed, grabbing Charlie’s wrist and pulling her towards a large skip bin. He pulled her around its side to see… a pool of thick black liquid on the ground. Charlie squinted at it.

“Uh, wait, hold up,” Angel said, seemingly shocked by what he was seeing, as if this wasn’t what he was expecting to find. “It was here when I left…” he added quietly, realisation dawning on him that he probably looked pretty stupid right now.

“Angel, what’s this all about?” Charlie asked tersely and pursed her lips, feeling a bit impatient with the spider’s antics right now.

“No, you don’t understand, there was a- it was a- and then it-“ Angel sputtered, trying to explain as he looked around the alley wildly. “Ah! There, look!” he exclaimed loudly, pointing now to a smaller puddle of black liquid a few steps further down the alley.

Charlie crossed her arms with annoyance. “Angel Dust, what the hell are you playing at!” Charlie hissed as Angel quickly skittered over to the other puddle to examine it.

“Don’t you see Charlie, it’s its blood! There’s a trail going down the alley, I must have scared it off when I was first here and now it’s looking for a new hiding spot!” Angel said excitedly, gesturing down the alley frantically as Charlie walked up behind him.

She reached out and grabbed Angel by the cheeks, turning him towards her and holding his gaze to hers as she squeezed his face. “What Angel?! What was here?!” she exclaimed in frustration, shaking him a bit and her eyes going slightly red as she drilled into him with a fiery glare.

Angel’s expression looked rather silly with his lips being pushed together by Charlie’s grip. “A, uh, angel, Charlie,” Angel Dust said quietly and flatly.

Charlie’s eyes went wide. “A what?!” she cried out, instantly letting go of the spider’s fuzzy face.

Angel shook his head and composed himself, fixing his fur. “Y’know, those grey things with the wings and the horns and the halo’s?” Angel explained in a patronizing tone.

“What would an angel be doing here Angel?” Charlie questioned, almost face palming herself from how stupid that sentence sounded. “The cleansing is over, they would have all returned to heaven by now.” She held her hands out straight in front of her as a request for further explanation.

“Oh, it was injured. And I mean badly,” Angel clarified, gesturing at the pools of thick black blood. “In fact, one whole wing was ripped off, so that can maybe explain, you know, why it couldn’t fly back to heaven…” he said the last bit hesitantly, not being sure if it was appropriate to be so condescending with a very agitated princess of hell.

“Oh no, that’s- I mean this is-,” Charlie stumbled to find the words to describe the situation. “- not great,” she finally settled on. She felt her skin start to prick at the idea of an exterminator being around, and now understood why Angel Dust had been so jittery.

“Well hey, it’s not all that bad toots,” Angel tentatively tried to rally her. “After all, in its current state it probably won’t be able to hurt anyone, in fact it seems like it’s just trying to hide. Secondly, it means there’s a demon powerful enough to injure an exterminator! I wonder who it was?” Angel went quiet for a moment as he pondered that thought.

“Yes, okay, but what are we going to DO about it?” Charlie piped in during Angel’s pause, still feeling a little panicked, holding her arms up now in a mix between a plead and a shrug.

“Well, I came and got you ‘cause I thought you might want to nab it,” Angel rationalized casually, and when he got quite the wide eyed surprised stare, went on to clarify, “you know, I thought maybe we could use it to try and figure out how to get into heaven, since everyone think’s your redemption plan is bogus and all.” Now her stare changed to one of irritation. “OR, or, it could help us figure out how to redeem demons?” he attempted to placate.

Charlie held still, staring blankly at Angel for a moment. “I… uh… guess so,” she said slowly, lowering her arms. “Yeah lets just… capture a being more powerful than any demon and just - take it home!” Charlie’s voice was ramping in pitch as he anxiety about the idea grew. “I’m sure everyone will love that – oh god, how will Alastor react?” she looked around apprehensively.

“Eeeeh, I’m sure he’ll fine it ‘quite entertaining’,” Angel mocked with a poor impersonation. “Relax sugar, as I said before, it’s not going to be able to hurt anyone, this will be easy.” Angel seemed to have regained his unconcerned demeanour quite quickly for someone who had seemed as nervous as Charlie was feeling just a short while ago, unless he was putting up a front.

“Okay so what, we just go up to it and grab it?” Charlie demanded with exasperation. “Should we call for back up? Vaggie? Alastor?”

“Nah, we don’t need those guys, I think we can handle it. First, we have to find the damn thing anyway, I’m sure we’ll come up with something when we do.” Angel proposed optimistically.

Charlie’s expression didn’t look very confident about it. “I guess we just follow the trail then,” Charlie suggested, gesturing down to the splats of inky black trailing down the alley. When she looked back up at Angel, he just shrugged at her awkwardly with his mouth pulled into a straight line. “Ugh, come on, lets get moving,” she said, leading the way deeper into the alley.

Turning another corner, the rooftops hanging above closed over the narrow space between the buildings, making it a bit darker. The two demons stopped in their tracks when they detected a weird gurgling sound coming from behind a pile of trash. Exchanging nervous glances, Charlie and Angel carefully approached the pile and peered over into the darkness behind it. A glowing toothy grin suddenly flickered on.

Charlie and Angel Dust both recoiled slightly as they realized the exterminator was facing straight at them. Charlie rallied her courage and stepped around the trash pile until she was standing in the middle of the narrow passageway in front of where the angel was sprawled out against the trash heap. It robotically turned its head to follow her, illuminated mouth flickering.

This made Charlie realise the first thing that was wrong with the angel. There should have been two glowing circles, or a cross and a circle, to accompany the glowing smile. But where the angel’s eyes should be were two deep puncture wounds full of the thick black liquid that was the angel’s blood. Once she was able to tear her eyes away from that horrific sight, Charlie looked over the rest of the exterminator’s form. Its body was learning against the wall behind it and the trash pile next to it on its right side. An exterminator spear was sticking out of its lower abdomen. Its left wing was sheltering its body on that side, while all that remained of the right wing was a clump of feathers just on the shoulder blade with a large splintered bone sticking out of it, plus more black liquid dripping out of the rend. One of its horns was damaged, the top half seemingly smashed off.

The exterminator was, for want of a better word, simply ‘staring’ blankly and blindly in Charlie’s direction, its head tilting slightly as if it was trying to listen. On second glance Charlie thought its mouth looked less like the usual fixed smile the exterminators had, and more like a grimace. This particular exterminator had slightly unique skin compared to the usual grey; pitch black with white ‘freckles’ all over.

“Ummm, hi,” Charlie said, nervously tenting her fingers and rocking back on her heels.

Angel Dust looked at her, baffled. “Did you just say hi, to the fucking exterminator??” he hissed in a low tone, as if the angel wouldn’t be able to hear him. But it clearly could, as it had whipped its head around to face his direction for a moment, blindly searching for the source of the voice.

“Oh, um, I mean…” Charlie trailed off, trying to think of what to say or do. “Oh hell, Angel, I can’t help it, the poor thing looks so pathetic,” she said as her shoulder sagged. The exterminator’s head snapped back towards her, regarding her with a frown.

“Charlie!” Angel Dust hissed, stepping towards her with a scowl. “Its. An. Exterminator. An unstoppable killing machine. And you feel… sorry for it?” Angel gestured towards her accusingly with his hands, confusion planted across his features.

Charlie wrung her hands. “But just look at it Angel, its been practically torn to shreds.” The corner of her mouth turned upwards in a small smile as she stepped towards the creature. “Hello there, can you understand us?” she asked the exterminator gently. Angel Dust glared at her harder.

The exterminator cocked its head, before nodding slowly, giving her a puzzled grin.

“Ah, that’s great!” Charlie said, clapping her hands together while her face lit up. Angel Dust was dragging his hands down his own face in exasperation. “We… we… weeeee…” Charlie paused. “We are going to help you!”

“Wait wait wait, no no no no no,” Angel Dust began, slamming his fist into his palm. “That wasn’t the plan Charlie!” But Charlie appeared to just ignore his protests. Though its lack of eyes made its expressions difficult to read, the exterminator looked somewhat surprised and confused at Charlie’s offer.

Charlie stepped forward and knelt in front of the exterminator and started to look it over. The sound seemed to startle it a bit, as it drew itself backwards.

“So, do you have a name?” Charlie asked gently while inspecting the spear impaled into the creatures very thin waist, though the low lighting didn’t help her to properly evaluate the wound. She wasn’t entirely sure if the angel could speak, she had never heard an exterminator do so before, though her father was an angel and he talked all the time so she assumed that they could.

A staticky voice slowly emanated from the exterminator. “Forfax.”

“Oh, well hello Forfax, it’s nice to meet you,” Charlie said with a grin. “I’m Charlie, princess of hell, and my friend here is Angel Dust.”

“Char-lie…” Forfax said, the brows above their ruined eyes pulling together in contemplation.

“I run a place called the Happy Hotel, where I am trying to help demons become better people, so you guys don’t have to kill us anymore,” Charlie explained happily.

Forfax let out a strange garbled noise, which the two demons looking on in confusion eventually figured out was some form of laughter, spluttering laughter like from a person who lungs were full of blood.

Charlie pouted. “Look, Forfax, you are in a really bad way. I would say you look like your dying, but I don’t know if angels can even do that. We can get you back to the hotel, get that spear out of you and stitch you up, help you get better,” she offered tentatively.

Angel Dust sighed heavily, rolled his eyes and looked away with his arms crossed across his chest. “This broad is crazy,” he muttered to himself.

When Forfax didn’t reply, Charlie took a handkerchief from her pocket and reached out and started wiping up the blood around their eye wounds. The angel flinched at her touch at first but didn’t make a move to stop her.

“Okay Charlie, now that’s great and all, but how exactly are we going to get this guy back to the hotel?” Angel Dust demanded irritably. “You know, surreptitiously? Without attracting the attention of a bunch of demons? Who will probably try to finish the job?” 

Charlie stopped her paltry clean-up and moved back on her heels, her brow knitted thoughtfully. “Hold on, I’ll text Vaggie and get her to bring the car,” Charlie said as she swiftly rose to her feet and got out her phone, fingers flying across the screen.

“Oh yeah, great idea, I’m sure Vaggie will be thrilled when she turns up and sees this,” Angel Dust said sarcastically, throwing his arms in the air.

“Hey, this was your idea in the first place!” Charlie retorted, stowing the phone away after hitting send. “Hey, Forfax, do you think you can walk at all? We will need to get you back to the street,” she leant over and touched them on the shoulder gently.

Forfax shrugged, gathering their spindly limbs underneath them and attempted to stand, leaning on the wall for support with their right hand and clutching the area around the spear wound with their left, flaring their remaining wing to help balance them. Their mouth actually opened fully, and they coughed, hacking up big blobs of black sludge. Charlie quickly stepped forward to offer support, placing her hands on their shoulders, before moving them away from the wall and ducking under their right arm to partially carry them. The exterminator was taller than her, at least as tall as Alastor, but was surprisingly light for their size, perhaps the hollow bone theory she had heard was true. Black blood started dripping on Charlie’s suit from the amputated wing, running down her back.

Angel Dust regarded the whole situation with some distaste and didn’t make any move to help. Instead he just tossed his hair and started moseying off back down the alleyway, leading them back towards the street. Forfax was finding it difficult to walk, dragging their feet and stumbling on the uneven surface, letting out groans of pain. However, they kept pushing along, relying on Charlie to support and guide them around the corners.

The group reached the last straight towards the street, they alleyway having opened back up with a bit more light to see by. The noises of cars wafted down the alley, and the exterminator raised their head slightly towards the source of the sound. The group stopped a little way before the alley opening, Charlie encouraging the exterminator to hold onto her shoulder for support so she could free up a hand to get out her phone and check her messages.

She skimmed over the barrage of texts from Vaggie demanding to know what was going on and spotted one mixed in about being on her way to them. Charlie sighed a little with relief. Angel Dust was examining his nails, tapping one heeled boot impatiently. Forfax was breathing heavily as they struggled to stay standing even with Charlie’s support.

A few moments later the limo pulled up in front of the alleyway, the door pushed open before the vehicle even came to a complete halt. Vaggie practically leapt out of the car, landing in a fighting stance on the side walk, clutching her spear and surveying her surroundings. She spotted Charlie down the alley and her eyes went wider than ever before. Her shoulders drooped slightly with surprise, her grip on her weapon loosening for a second. Then she scowled and started stomping over to them.

“What are you DOING Charlie?! What the FUCK is THIS?!” Vaggie demanded, gesturing at Forfax, her eye wild and cross flaring brighter.

“Please Vaggie, calm down, not so loud okay?” Charlie whispered, putting a finger to her lips before adjusting the exterminators position leaning on her shoulders.

Vaggie’s mouth fell open in disbelief, her eye flitting between Charlie’s face and the exterminator. She also turned her head slightly to stare at Angel Dust for a moment.

“Have you gone completely mad Charlie? What are you doing with a god damn angel?” Vaggie hissed, unable to prevent her volume from increasing as she spoke. Her expression was of panic and horror.

“Look at them Vaggie,” Charlie quickly tried to placate, “they’ve had their eyes stabbed out, a wing ripped off and they’re skewered on a spear bleeding everywhere. They can’t even walk without my help, they’re not going to be able to hurt anyone. Now quickly, we have to get them in the car and back to the hotel without anyone seeing.”

While Vaggie stood with her mouth hanging open at what Charlie had just said, the princess made a gesture to Angel Dust to go out and check if the street was clear. Angel chuckled and rolled his eyes before moving down to the end of the alley and looking both ways along the side walk. He turned back to Charlie and gave her two thumbs up with his left hands.

“You’re taking it home?!” Vaggie sputtered, quickly following behind Charlie as she booked it as fast as Forfax was able to over to the limo and helped them squeeze through the door. She had to help them balance themself and pull their wing through, and then get them laid out across some of the leather seats. While Charlie was doing this Vaggie had been standing next to the car cussing away while Angel Dust shook his head at her.

“Hurry up and get in you two!” Charlie commanded, sitting on the floor of the limo next to Forfax. Vaggie stopped and took a deep breath, but then clambered in and took a seat, Angel Dust following and pulling the door closed behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know according to the wiki that the exterminators faces are actually LED masks, but I didn't know that while writing this an actually prefer to think those are their actual faces. So I guess I'm diverging from canon there, sorry if you don't like that.
> 
> Also I am not sure where to go next with this story. I had two ideas that I really wanted to write about, quickly wrote a chapter on each, and now I'm a bit stuck. If you enjoyed it so far and would like to give me any pointers on where to take the narrative feel free to suggest away, on here or tumblr.


	3. Easy Does It

Angel Dust had clambered over the rest of them to take his favourite seat up the front. Vaggie slid into a side seat, and Forfax was laid across the back seats, with Charlie staying seated on the floor. Angel Dust made a silly face before pressing the now fixed button to wind down the window and tell Razzle and Dazzle to drive them back to the hotel. Though after Vaggie shot daggers at him, he didn’t fiddle with the button any more, and sat with his feet on the seat, pouting like a child.

Forfax was sputtering a coughing quite a lot and seemed to be less alert than they had been before. Charlie was holding one of their hands and rubbing it gently to try and comfort them, though they didn’t seem to notice. Black blood oozed out all over the upholstery of her dad’s limousine. Woopsie.

“Okay Charlie, would you like to explain to me exactly what your plan is here?” Vaggie asked, trying to keep her tone tempered though her scowl remained intact. “You can’t just…pick an exterminator up off the street like its some kind of puppy, we can’t just keep it at the hotel,” she added, making exasperated hand gestures.

“Well, you know what I have been saying about how everyone is welcome at the hotel Vaggie. Besides, this was Angel Dust’s idea originally, we thought maybe we could learn something from Forfax here about how to redeem demons and get them into heaven,” Charlie explained innocently, batting her eyelashes at Vaggie in a plea for forgiveness.

“You’ve named it?” Vaggie questioned with bewilderment.

“No, that’s their name, they told us,” Charlie corrected simply.

Vaggie seemed furtherly stunned by that. She looked between Charlie and the exterminator a few times. “Okay, so your plan is to take it back to the hotel and…?”

“Well I promised them we’d help fix them up, well… as much as we are able,” Charlie said as she glanced at Forfax’s face, or what was left of it.

“Charlie. How are we going to keep this a secret? We have a bunch of devout Christians just move into the hotel, what if they caught wind that we had an angel?” Vaggie pointed out.

“Oh… oh dear…” Charlie said with realisation, her expression falling a bit. “Well, I guess we will just have to keep Forfax in the upper levels near our penthouse and keep that area strictly off limit to guests. Except Angel Dust and the others, of course,” Charlie added the last part after glancing over at the spider demon who had looked slightly offended.

“I don’t know Charlie, I feel this could all go wrong very quickly,” Vaggie said with a sigh, her face softening as she cradled her chin in her hands with her elbows on her knees and leaned towards her girlfriend. “I mean, what if it dies? And they find out we have a dead angel in the hotel? Or if anyone finds out? I’m sure there are plenty of demons who would like to get their hands on one.”

“We just have to keep it hush hush Vaggie, just between the few people we trust. It’s not like they’re ever going to be able to leave the hotel anyway, they’re completely blind and will probably take a while to recover from these other wounds too,” Charlie rationalised, looking pretty sombre now herself though.

Vaggie gave a little smile and held her hand out to Charlie, who took it in her own and squeezed it. “But what about Alastor?” Vaggie pondered out loud, screwing her face up a bit.

“Well,” Charlie began, looking thoughtful herself, “maybe if we can avoid him, we can break the news when we are ready.” She finished with a shrug.

“Okay ladies, what’s the plan, cause we’re nearly there,” Angel Dust chimed in, looking out through the window.

Both the female demons looked slightly panicked at one another, trying to think of how to get the wounded exterminator into the hotel without anyone seeing. Vaggie jumped up and quickly started rifling through the various compartments in the car, finally finding a large black velvet blanket. She didn’t particularly want to ponder what it had been used for. She threw it over Forfax in the meantime, checking it was going to cover most of his form.

“Ugh, this would work best if someone could actually carry it,” Vaggie mused, and then her eyes landed on Angel Dust. “Hey, wait a minute, don’t you have freakish spider strength?”

“Aw hell no, I don’t want to get that black hunk all over my outfit,” Angel Dust loudly exclaimed, making a face of disgust.

Charlie looked thoughtful. “Angel, if you do it… I’ll let you take the limo out for a joy ride,” she offered with a mischievous smile. “And besides being so strong, you also have 6 arms! It will be easy for you, plus the blanket should stop most of the blood getting on you,” she implored guilefully.

“… okay fine, I’ll do it,” Angel agreed with only short consideration of the offer.

The limousine pulled up outside the back of the hotel as Angel had instructed the goat twins so they could go in through the back door. Charlie had carefully wrapped the exterminator up in the blanket, who seemed to be unconscious now. They manoeuvred them out of the car and into Angel Dust’s arms, who used several arms to lift the tall creature like it was nothing, carrying them in the bridal style, the blanket complete obscuring their form. They left Razzle and Dazzle to re-park the car, subtly creeping over to the back door and quietly stealing inside.

They were in the kitchen, a single glowing yellow eye glared at them from beside the stove. Nifty was standing on the benchtop, bent over a pot with a wooden spoon clutched in her tiny hand.

After a long awkward moment, Nifty broke the silence. “Soooo… what ‘cha got there,” she asked, tilting her head and pointing at the blanket covered figure with her dripping spoon.

“Uhhh… potatoes?” Charlie said the first thing that came into her head, smiling awkwardly. The other two maintained stares of mild panic.

Nifty stared at them for another moment, apparently evaluating that response. “Okay!” she said cheerily and got back to stirring her pot while whistling a high-pitched tune.

All three demons let out the breaths they didn’t know they had been holding, and quickly scurried through the kitchen and into the hallway, heading towards the staff elevator.

A figure dressed in red was standing at the end of the hall in front of the elevator, causing the small group to skid to a halt. Alastor turned his head towards them, much further around than a normal person could, raising the eyebrows over his glowing eyes as he did so.

“Where are you all off to my friends,” the radio demon asked as he turned properly to face them, his eyes being drawn to the lump in Angel Dust’s arms.

“Po..ta…toes…?” Charlie tried slowly, before realising she had stuffed up. Alastor looked quite amused at this, his grin widening.

“Why my dear, that sure is a funny looking sack of potatoes you have there. Almost looks like a dead body,” his eyes and teeth gleamed. “I didn’t really think you had it in you, but I guess you proved me wrong. Perhaps we will make a real demon out of you yet,” he beamed with pride.

“No Al, it’s not-” Charlie began, before scrunching up her face in frustration. “Okay look, if we tell you what it is will you promise not to tell anyone else? Not a single soul?” Charlie offered impatiently, worried about being caught by someone else. Vaggie glared daggers at her for giving them away.

“You had my interest dear, but now you have my attention,” Alastor said lowly, his grin turning devious. “I promise your little secret will be safe with me.”

“Okay, but we’ll show you once we get upstairs, we need to get out of here before anyone else finds us,” Charlie said, dodging past Alastor to reach the service elevator, pushing the button to call it down. Once it arrived, they all piled in and Charlie hit the button for the second level from the top, which would be the level just below the penthouse, where the staff quarters were.

Alastor hummed some elevator style music through a smug smile while they rose upwards. Vaggie and Angel rolled their eyes, and Charlie bounced on her heels nervously. Once they arrived on the floor she practically bounded out of the elevator, gesturing to Angel to follow her. A few doors down she fished the service level master key from her pocket and opened one of the rooms, and they all filed inside.

These staff accommodations weren’t quite as fancy as the normal rooms, but they were serviceable enough. A double bed, kitchenette and ensuite. Angel Dust took the blanket wrapped figure over to the bed and placed it down, stepping back and looking over his clothes to make sure he wasn’t bled on. Charlie stepped over to the bedside, Alastor leaning in behind her to see.

Charlie unwrapped the blanket from the exterminator, fixing up their position on the bed to be as comfortable as possible, placing a pillow under their head. Forfax groaned slightly though still seemed probably unconscious.

“Well well well, look what the spider dragged in,” Alastor said deviously, lifting his monocle to peer through it and get a better look at the sight in front of him. His eyes suddenly seemed… hungry.

“This is Forfax. Angel found them in an alley. As you can see their wounds are quite severe and-” Charlie broke off as she noticed Alastor’s expression. “- no, you can NOT eat them to see what angel flesh tastes like Alastor, I can see the look on your face!” she asserted firmly.

Alastor shrugged and rolled his eyes. “A demon can dream hey?” he quipped, grinning from ear to ear as usual.

Charlie huffed slightly at that, and Vaggie was scowling at Alastor. “Everyone is welcome at the Happy Hotel. We are going to help this angel and learn how to get into heaven from them. All you have to do is not breathe a word of this to anyone, understand?” Charlie sounded quite angry and demanding for once, which was unusual for her.

“Of course, my dear, I wouldn’t dream of it,” Alastor reassured with a dismissive hand gesture. “In fact, I think I can help you and your fine feathered friend. I have an associate who specialises in exterminator weapon injuries who I think I could… persuade into helping out.”

“I’m not sure about the sound of that Charlie,” Vaggie interjected, “after all, we want as few people to know about it as possible, it could be risky.” Angel Dust nodded along with the sentiment.

“Don’t worry, my associate also specialises in the art of being discreet,” Alastor rebuffed Vaggie’s concern. “Unless you think you have the medical skills to fix this chap right up?”

“He has a point Vaggie…” Charlie said, having regained her meeker composure quite quickly.

“Hey, I have first hand experience treating exterminator eye injuries!” Vaggie asserted, pointing at her cross. “But… nothing as severe as this, I must admit,” she added, stepping around the other side of the bed and taking a good look at all Forfax’s wounds for the first time.

“Just leave it to me, I’ll call up my friend and get him over in a jiffy,” Alastor proclaimed with a flourish of his microphone, taking his leave of the room for now. The remaining three demons looked at each other uncertainly.

“Welp, I’m going to go have a shower and change into whatever is going to piss off Karen most at dinner. Probably the sluttiest thing I can find. Later,” Angel announced, stepping out of the room as well, leaving just Charlie and Vaggie with the exterminator.

After a few moments of awkward silence Vaggie spoke up again. “So, what should we do while we wait?” she asked hesitantly.

“Well,” Charlie began, clasping her hands behind her back and bouncing up on her toes while she thought, “I think it might be best to clean the wounds, as much as we can at least.”

Charlie and Vaggie worked together for a while cleaning up the exterminator. First, they had to awkwardly figure out which parts were clothes, and which were part of the creature, as they wore very tight-fitting garments. With Charlie’s reassurance they went ahead and peeled off all clothing items, having to cut the top around the spear which was still embedded in the angel’s abdomen. They both knew better than to pull out a blade like that before the surgeon arrived. Once fully undressed they pulled a blanket up over Forfax’s legs to cover everything below the hips, even though they didn’t have any genitalia to speak of. The lower part of their body had also escaped most of the damage, so could be left alone.

They set to with warm wet cloths, gently cleaning up the now drying thick black blood from around the spear wound, other slashes across their body, their wing stump and eyes. It was a little awkward having them lying on their back which squished their wing underneath them; Charlie guessed they would more likely usually sleep on their stomach to avoid this like some be-winged demons did, if exterminators even slept at all.

During the cleaning Forfax had let out a couple of whimpers, but otherwise seemed to have remained unconscious. They did the job as best they could, and now that the angel was lying still the bleeding had lessened.

“Does bleach work on angel blood?” Vaggie pondered aloud, examining a stained cloth she held up in front of her. The sheets under the creature were not looking too great either.

Just then the door to the room swung open and Alastor bobbed back into the room. He didn’t even announce his return, yet it still felt like an event just from the way he strutted. He was followed now by another demon. This demon resembled some kind of shark, with a flat wedge-shaped head and large finned tail. He appeared muscular but was only about Vaggie’s height. He was dressed in a light blue lab coat with shirt and tie underneath. He carried a large leather handbag.

“You better not be having me on for a joke Alastor, I don’t have time for pranks-” the shark demon was in the middle of saying as he followed Alastor into the room but broke off when he spotted the exterminator lying on the bed, Charlie and Vaggie on either side of it. “Holy shit, you were serious,” he exclaimed in amazement with wide eyes, stepping towards the bed.

“Now now Jayr, you really think I would call you all the way across the city for some sort of prank?” the radio demon said shrewdly. “… well, actually, that probably could have been slightly entertaining…”

Jayr the shark demon was looking the injured angel over with a furrowed brow, which looked strange on his weirdly shaped face. “Look, Alastor, I know I said I’m good with exterminator weapon wounds, but I don’t know anything about healing exterminators themselves,” Jayr suddenly said with exasperation. “Or why you would even want to help one in the first place,” he added with a look of contempt.

“You let us worry about the why my dear friend,” Alastor placated, placing a hand on the doctor’s back, “and as for your lack of knowledge in this area, well, this is your chance to learn yes?” he flashed a confident toothy grin.

The doctor looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, if you insist,” Jayr said without that much hesitation, actually looking satisfied with that idea. “But what about payment?”

“What would some angel feathers, or a vial of angel blood, be worth to you?” Alastor suggested cunningly. “I’m sure our friend here wont protest giving you a little if you save their life,” he added after noticing Charlie frowning at him for what he had proposed.

“Hrmm, I guess that would do,” Jayr conceded, though he looked like he was trying to downplay his excitement at the prospect. “Okay, I’m going to need room to work here, so everybody out!” the doctor announced, gesturing with his hands for everyone to clear the area. “Oh, though if you could bring me a bowl of fresh warm water and clean cloths first…” he trailed off and he set his bag down on the beside table and popped it open, revealing it to be full of first aid equipment.

Charlie motioned at Vaggie and Alastor to leave while she headed towards the ensuite to fulfil the request. Alastor smirked and cocked his head slightly, then bowed subtly and withdrew. Vaggie looked a bit miffed but rolled her eyes and stalked out of the room too. Once Charlie returned with the water and cloths, she saw the doctor applying some fluid around the spear wound, clearly currently the priority injury to deal with.

“Interesting, this isn’t a normal exterminator spear you know,” Jayr said and he examined the entry wound, trying to figure out how to get the spear out. Charlie raised her eyebrows in surprise, but didn’t say anything, just watched as he worked for a moment. He seemed to not realise she was there, or at least didn’t try to kick her out of the room.

After he had removed the object and staunched the bleeding, he held it up to examine it. “Yes, it’s not even a spear at all,” he murmured. The pole had a single edged blade on the end, made of golden rather than silver metal, and intricate engravings up the wood.

“What is it?” Charlie asked as the doctor handed the weapon to her, seemingly aware of her presence after all.

“It’s still an angel weapon. It’s a glaive, different from a spear. The golden colour indicates it’s an archangel weapon,” he explained with a brooding look at the item.

“Oh… well I guess it wasn’t a demon that did this then…” Charlie mused, mostly to herself, as the doctor had turned his attention back to the exterminator and was working on the wound, applying dressings and bandages. Charlie decided to leave him to it and go and join her friends out in the hall, taking the weapon with her.

Alastor and Vaggie has been waiting just outside the door in the hallway. When Charlie opened the door and slipped out Vaggie shot her an impatient look, as if to ask why she had taken so long. Alastor’s attention seemed to be immediately draw to the weapon Charlie was holding.

“Hrm, what a pretty trinket you have pulled out of your friend there,” Alastor said, he static grin the same as ever by his eyes looked hungry, though not in the same way when he had been sizing up Forfax for his next meal. “May I have a look at it?”

Charlie seemed unsure about the request, and Vaggie was glaring at her with a ‘no, don’t’ expression. But then Charlie shrugged and handed the glaive to the radio demon. Alastor’s smile softened slightly in surprise, and he gently took the pole arm and started to look it over, while Vaggie was screaming internally.

“It looks like wasn’t a demon that injured Forfax,” Charlie said, ignoring Vaggie’s controlled outrage. “Angels fighting other angels?” she speculated. “I think we need to find out more about Forfax to piece this together, though not much we can do while they are unconscious.”

“I agree with you Charlie, but this will probably have to wait until later,” Vaggie entreated, having calmed down a bit after the whole world didn’t explode when Charlie handed a powerful archangel weapon to a super powerful murderous demon. Alastor just appeared to be harmlessly examining it through his monocle. “It’s nearly 7pm, we shouldn’t keep everyone waiting.”

“Oh, right, the welcome dinner!” Charlie exclaimed, a bit flustered that it had slipped her mind.

“Don’t worry my dear, your friend is in good hands with my associate,” Alastor said, handing back the glaive carefully. “They’ll be patched up in no time! Well, as patched up as you can be missing your eyes and a limb.”

“Okay, yes, we’ll come back and check on them after dinner. But remember, not a word of this to any of the guests!” Charlie declared, mostly pointing at Alastor, as she trusted Vaggie to be sensible.

“Of course, my dear, not a word,” he placed a clawed finger against his smiling lips.


End file.
